Who payed the critics

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

THE REAL GLORY 1939This Samuel Goldwyn Production is about a series of battles during the Moro war in the Philippines. This armed conflict took place from 1903 to 1913. The film stars, Gary Cooper, David Niven, Broderick Crawford, Andrea Leeds, Reginald Owen, Russell Hicks and Vladimir Sokoloff.The film is set on the Philippines island of Mindanao. The US Army is pulling out and leaving the local militia and Police force in charge. The locals are sure that once the US Army leaves, the Moro guerrillas will swoop in and kill all the men, then sell the women and children into slavery. The Army leaves several men to help train the locals to defend themselves. (Cooper, Niven, Crawford, Owen, Hicks) The Moro leader, Tetsu Komai, tries to draw the American led militia out into the jungle where they plan on slaughtering them. When this does not work, Komai, with help from his inside man, Vladimir Sokoloff, send in several suicide types to kill the American commanding officer. This they succeed in doing, but this also fails to bring out the Constabulary. Now the Moro types dam up the river and stop the flow of fresh water to the village. There is soon a cholera problem and people start to die. The Army doctor, Gary Cooper does what he can. The man in charge now, Reginald Owen, is afraid to do anything about the problem. He is going blind from an old wound. Needless to say he is keeping this info from Cooper and the rest. Owen finally orders one of the men, Broderick Crawford, to take a detachment of militia and destroy the dam. The problem here is that the Moro leader is kept up to date on the intelligence front by inside man, Sokoloff. Broderick and his men are massacred with only a single survivor. The situation now is desperate in the village from lack of fresh water, as well as the disease problem.Now Sokoloff steps up and offers to lead another detachment up a secret trail to the dam. Owen falls for the ploy and leads off most of the militia garrison. They also take along a healthy amount of dynamite. Cooper, left in command of the village, now discover Sokoloff's duplicity. He puts David Niven in charge, grabs up a shotgun and takes off to warn Owen.While Owen is being led up and down various jungle paths, the Moros have massed for an attack on the now depleted garrison. Cooper manages to reach Owen and fill him in on Sokoloff. After disposing of the swine Sokoloff, Cooper and the rest destroy the dam, build some rafts, and return to the village. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, er, I mean the village, there is a full-fledged battle going on. The Moros, using freshly captured rifles, are getting the upper hand. Inside the barricades, Niven and the remaining militia are putting up a stubborn bit of resistance, but they are outnumbered and losing ground. Just as it looks like the Moro bunch will be victorious, Cooper and the boys arrive. They take the Moros in the flank and soon have them on the run with heavy casualties. The Moro leader, Komai, is killed by one of the Philippine Militia officers, Rudy Robles. The threat to the village and its people is ended. There is a side plot where Reginald Owen's daughter, Andrea Leeds, falls for the dashing doctor, Cooper. This one comes off like a version of Gunga Din with plenty of action and derring do. The director was Henry Hathaway, who had worked with Cooper on, THE LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER. Hathaway cranked out more than a few decent films during his career. These include, SOULS AT SEA, SPAWN OF THE NORTH, WING AND PRAYER, THE BLACK ROSE, RAWHIDE, KISS OF DEATH, NIAGARA, THE SONS OF KATIE ELDER and TRUE GRIT. Helping out behind the camera was Rudolph Mate. The 5 time Oscar nominated cinematographer (Gilda, Sahara) would become a director himself. He would crank out a series of well-respected westerns and film noir like, DOA, UNION STATION, BRANDED, THE VIOLENT MEN, SIEGE AT RED RIVER, THE FAR HORIZONS, and THE RAWHIDE YEARS.

I had never even heard of this movie until I viewed it today. Thank God for the library's VHS collection. The plot, five US Army officers are tasked to be military advisors in the establishment of the Phillipine constabulary in 1906. Despite the colonel's plea, the war Department has decided US troops will no longer be responsible for protecting the local people because they will never learn to do it themselves if the US Army does it all. Sound familiar to anyone? The enemy are the Moro insurgents, who just happen to be Muslim. They are bent on establishing a Muslim state and are not too particular about how they do it. The movie points out that not all Moros are bad, not all agree with the radicals and some are quite helpful to the advisors. The plot cautions us however not to take everyone at face value. There are traitors in their midst.I find the lead (Cooper's) character solutions to winning hearts and minds to be fantastic. The guy could have been a role model for counter insurgency. Perhaps he was the first Green Beret. I won't go into his methods, watch them yourself and then think IRAQ. Of course with 24/7 news cycles and instant communication blended with micro-management it is hard to see this happening today. If we had those things back then, well, the course of history in the Phillipines would have been very different.All in all, an excellent movie with a great cast highlighting an interesting period of US History that is all but forgotten today. It is interesting to think that people who actually participated in the Phillipine Insurrection were still around when it debuted in 1939.

As interesting as the personal relationships were written - for the times, the action sequences were the most escapist - from the laws of probability.It was interesting to see the Moro leaders speak to each other in English then turn to their followers and speak to them in the native language. It was surprising to have Canavan view the Moro gang's ceremonial planning for the next act and not recognize the Moro chief, Datu, as one of the conspirators. It was astounding that when a speedy return to the fort was required, taking the time to build 10-15 rafts to float the squadron down the undammed river was the method of travel. It was magical to see that trees were cut and lashed together for the rafts without the appearance of tools or an area for construction.But it was just unbelievable to watch the men navigate the rushing river rapids standing on the rafts with push poles, then have only the native constabulary falling off the raft while Canavan stands statuesque as the raft plows into a giant rock in the middle of the river.These were all things that could have been accomplished correctly relatively easily.It was just funny to see the close-up scenes on the river that were clearly mixed images. But that's the best they could do then. It was also funny to see the cannon shots into the fort wall, unless the script was trying to say the attacking gang had somehow lifted the cannon over the wall and was firing from the outside. It makes David Niven's English accent while claiming an entire life in the US almost plausible.Escapist? Whew, I should say! But I guess it's the best they could do?

THE REAL GLORY is a terrific follow-up to the adventure classic LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER (1936) which saw the previous pairing of star Gary Cooper with director Henry Hathaway. THE REAL GLORY is a 'Boy's Own' style adventure romp through the jungles of the Phillipines following the Spanish-American War. Cooper leads a small band of American soldiers and medical personnel as they train a police force to fight back against vicious Moro pirates who terrorize and prey upon the local villagers. Cooper and co-star David Niven are the perfect Hollywood mix of heroism, gallantry and self-sacrifice. Director Hathaway fills THE REAL GLORY to the brim with rousing action sequences, desperate derring-do and the kind of buckle-swashing that heavily influenced modern classics like Spielberg's RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. An absolutely top-notch film in every department. This is escapist entertainment as only Golden Age Hollywood could produce. If you like 'GUNGA DIN/RAIDERS' style filmmaking then this is a must-see. A perfect Saturday night popcorn film.